If that wasn’t hard enough to swallow, Notley doubled down on her attack this week.

“…if B.C. continues to insist they have rights to attack Alberta’s economy, which they don’t have, we will have no choice but to respond,” she threatened on Twitter.

The premier of the only province that is now breaking any law went further, in other media appearances.

She said that Horgan & Co. can either follow the law, "or they can dig in their heels and pretend they are a separate country with powers to make whatever laws they want, with no regard for the constitution or the views and rights of other Canadians.

“It’s in British Columbia’s power to put this issue to rest,” she stressed, effectively demanding Horgan reward her government’s unconscionable trade sanctions by abdicating his responsibility to protect B.C.’s environment from bitumen spills.

Notley further placed the blame for failing to resolve the dispute—that her government intensified—squarely at the feet of the federal government.

"When I say we're going to give them a little bit of space, we're talking days, not much more than that," she said.

So far, Notley has been handily beating the crap out of Horgan.

He still looks shell-shocked from the force and velocity of her government’s economic and public relations assault.

He is rapidly running out of other cheeks to turn.

Sooner or later, he will be obliged to respond: legally, politically, and perhaps in kind.

B.C. can ill afford to sit idly by while Alberta wages war on its economy with measures that will inevitably really start to hurt.

Laying down and wishing an assault away is never a wise response to a bully.

Especially when that individual is being cheered on by the media to lash out even harder in “retaliation” for a first strike that was never committed by the party now crumpled over in suspended disbelief and denial.

Does Horgan have an end game, or a strategy to respond as need be? Beats me.

I can only hope he won’t “turtle” in trying not to “be distracted” by the trade war that Notley’s government is illegally waging against B.C., openly supported by the Trudeau government.

Time to buck up, Premier Horgan. Fast.

Just because you are right in what you are doing doesn’t mean you will win the fight.

Your government needs to get some serious professional help, but quick, just as Notley has done with her new “blue-ribbon” advisory group.

In a word, your government needs to grow a pair, and fight back. With a tactical response that gives all British Columbians more confidence in its capacity to push back and come out on top.

It needs to lay out its constitutional arguments for its actions, to expedite the release of its “intentions paper”, and to demonstrate in no uncertain terms for all Canadians that its understanding and use of the law is not an ass.

It needs to do that with a clear, winning strategy, which is so crucial for maintaining and building public support.

And it needs to do that without giving an inch on its laudable initiative to better protect B.C.’s environment and people from the Trudeau and Notley governments’ reckless devotion to Big Oil.

Ironically, whether it is built before the next cycle of elections or not, Notley’s vigorous defence of Alberta has taken wind out of Kenney’s sails, who can now only promise to bellow louder as a response. The John Horgan government will need to find a face-saving way out, possibly in a spring election. But it is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who seems likely to be another, almost inevitable, pipeline victim today, like St. Laurent and his father before him.

Robin V. Sears, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group, was an NDP strategist for 20 years.

The above is strange to me, and maybe contains some wishful thinking. Trudeau could lose some BC seats but I don't see the Conservatives winning over this issue unless he really does send the army into BC which I doubt will happen. Trudeau and Notley are posturing.

Why would Horgan need to "save face"? Is the author assuming he will have to allow the pipeline through? Why would he need a election in the spring? As long as the Greens and NDP hold together, which seems to be happening, there is no need for another election. Why risk losing power?